Jack Smith Testifies Trump "Engaged in Criminal Activity" in House Hearing

I made my decisions without regard to President Trump's political association, activities, beliefs,

or candidacy in the 2024 election.

President Trump was charged because the evidence established that he willfully broke the law.

The very laws he took an oath to uphold.

Grangeries in two separate districts, which this conclusion based on his actions, as alleged

in the indictments they returned.

Rather than accept his defeat in the 2020 election, President Trump engaged in a criminal

scheme to overturn the results and prevent the lawful transfer of power.

After leaving office in January of 21, President Trump illegally kept classified documents

at his Mara Logo Social Club and repeatedly tried to obstruct justice to conceal his continued

retention of those documents.

Highly sensitive, national security information was held in a ballroom and a bathroom.

As I testified before the committee today, I want to be clear.

I stand by my decisions as special counsel, including the decision to bring charges

against President Trump.

Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged

in criminal activity.

If asked whether to prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would

No one should be above the law in this country and the law required that he be held to account.

So that is what I did to have done otherwise on the facts of these cases would have

meant to shirt my duties as a prosecutor and as a public servant of which I had no intention

of doing.

My fear is that we have seen the rule of law functioning in our country for so long that

many of us have come to take it for granted.

The rule of law is not self-executing.

It depends on our collective commitment to apply it.

It requires dedicated service on behalf of others, especially when that service is difficult

and comes with costs.

Our willingness to pay those costs is what tests and defines our commitment to the rule of

law and to this wonderful country.

What do you think about the attack on the Department of Justice and the special counsel

for doing your jobs?

I think the attack is unjustified.

I think that people who work with me as career public servants are people.

They are part of the reason I have been a prosecutor for so long as to work with people like

that, not just the prosecutors in my office, but also the agents, FBI agents who are

heroes who have served their country not only as agents but also overseas.

I think those attacks are unwarranted based on the facts and I think that they have no

basis in who we are as Americans as a country.

I don't see attacking people like that as anything appropriate.